La Côte d'Azur

Sarah and I recently traveled to Nice together for a long weekend. It was a ton a fun and very beautiful. We met some fabulous friends and I actually ran into two fellow Chippewas! They were studying in the business program in Nice and we found them at a bar. That was really cool and we ended up spending the whole evening with them and their group of friends. Sarah and I were excited to be able to go out and stay out for the night because in Angers it is difficult for us to go out at night. There we have to take taxis, which gets expensive after awhile, but in Nice everything was within walking distance.

We also visited the set up for the Grand Prix in Monaco, which was scheduled for the following Thursday. It was way cool to get to walk on the track and see the different team crews, although it did take away from the beauty of Monaco. I would like to go back one day when that's not there. For the most part, we just "beached it" and met some really cool people to hang out with. I absolutely loved Nice and would love to go back and spend two weeks there exploring. The only thing I will say is, women beware because certain men there can be extremely disrespectful and will kiss and hoot at you if any skin is showing whatsoever and you aren't on the beach. It is sad and annoying but true.

Coming home to rainy Angers was difficult but we only have exam week after this one, and then Caitie and I are off to Croatia! We will be there three days, then it's Paris and home!

 

Getting Down to the Wire

As the days go by I become more and more emotionally conflicted. I am extremely excited to go home and see my family and friends, start working again (and working out...) and just begin the next chapter in my life. But as it gets closer to that time, I also become a little sadder. I am realizing more and more each day that I really am leaving and will no longer be living with Caitie, having "chocolat heure" with Sarah, laughing in class with Zhenlong, dancing at the bar with Ana, or discussing life and love with Jesse. Everyone at CIDEF has become a sort of family together and it will be really hard leaving that, especially not knowing when or if we will see each other again. I have met and been touched by so many wonderful people here, it is hard for me to imagine going back to my life at home without them. Thanks to Facebook, I will be able to keep in touch with most everyone, but even then it will be difficult. We have already started making plans to visit each other, which among Americans is easier, but for people from around the world it might be years before I see them again. Despite the disappointment in having to leave all my new friends, I would not take back meeting them for the world. We will always be connected through CIDEF and our experiences here. So here is to everyone at CIDEF and all the wonderful memories and friendships that formed here this semester.

Then there is French. I am really going to miss speaking French and hearing it around me day in and day out. I have fallen in and out of love with the language several times since I got here, but I am now at the point where I feel that it has become a part of me and I fear losing that. Caitie, Sarah, and I plan to Skype for practice (and catching up) and then I will be keeping in touch with others from CIDEF with whom I can speak French, although it isn't the same as being surrounded by it.

Therefore, it is a bittersweet ending but a wonderful entree to the rest of my adventures to come, at home and abroad.